IdeaFestival founder Kris Kimel has said on numerous occasions, most recently at the IdeaFestival 2015 First Look event at Copper&Kings, that there are two types of companies today, "innovative and dead." If the following facts from "what evolution can teach us about innovation" are accurate, then how true it is.

This study revealed that the periods during which any single company can consistently maintain above average results are decreasing, regardless of industry, size of firm or geography. Using a series of rolling five-year periods for their analysis, the researchers found that just 5% of companies were able to string together ten or more years of superior performance, and less than a half percent of their sample (only 32 firms out of the 6,772 analyzed) performed above their peers for 20 years or more.

The truly outstanding performers in this study were those able to string together a series of short-term competitive advantages, rather than maintaining a single long-term advantage. (italics supplied)